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By
D.C. Witness Staff
- April 1, 2017
Homicides
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Suspects
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After allegedly stabbing a visiting artist to death, El Hadji Alpha Madiou Toure, 28, stole four-thousand dollars over the course of five days.
According to charging documents, 34-year-old Corrina Mehiel’s father reported her missing to North Carolina police March 21 after she didn’t return home as planned. Within the hour, police arrived at her apartment on 600 block of 14th St., NE and found Mehiel’s lifeless body, punctured from multiple stab wounds to her neck and body.
The vast majority of the left side of her body sustained injuries. Mehiel’s left palm showed defensive wounds and large lacerations were made to the left side of her neck which pierced major arteries, veins, her voicebox and airway. A coroner report said the injuries “suggest some sort of torture.” Mehiel’s left lung, spleen and spinal cord were all punctured as well.
Mehiel’s boyfriend was the last person to hear from her. On March 21, he received a text message from her around 1 a.m. after a dinner engagement with her boss and another person.
Later that morning surveillance footage in the area placed Mehiel near her apartment building, standing next to her car, with the hatch open.
More footage in the neighborhood showed a black male wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, light colored pants with a rip near the left knee, dark colored shoes and a dark colored backpack in the area.
Two hours after the sighting of Mehiel and her car, the black male as described previously was seen driving down 14th Street in Miehel’s car.
Over the course of the next five days, the black male was sighted at multiple ATM machines withdrawing money from Mehiel’s account. Along the way the male got rid of the car and traveled by Metro. Based on Meheil’s bankcard transactions, police were able to find the SmarTrip number of the card the male used.
According to documents detailing the investigation, on Monday, March 27 a witness told police they had been with the black male described previously smoking marijuana with another person. The witness heard the two speaking about how the black male, the witness later identified as El Toure, was “hot” and “should be laying low because his face is all over the television.”
The witness also told police he heard Toure tell the person, “he got rid of the car and got another one.” Throughout the conversation Toure told the person that he “was trying to rob the woman, but was not trying to kill her.”
The same witness called 911 the same day and told police the make, model and license plate number of the car Toure was driving.
Police were then able to locate and stop Toure.
Upon searching the car, police found the SmarTrip card that was linked to Mehiel’s bankcard along with a black backpack that matched the description of the male caught on surveillance footage. The backpack also contained paperwork showing Toure bought a car on March 24 and made a one-thousand dollar payment.
Another witness, a close relative to Toure, was able to identify him to police.
Toure was arrested and formally charged with second-degree murder and theft on Tuesday.
Toure is being held without bond and is expected in court April 11 for a preliminary hearing.